The Rot

The following are links and materials I am using in this morning's video. Since I have to use two different computers, I needed to put them here so I can retrieve them on the other one. 

 Rich Eisen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKZp-YcD_Gg&t=14s

congressional hearing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyULayL5KaU

congressional hearing  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl4ZU7UNZ0A

NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/us/university-of-pennsylvania-mit-harvard-antisemitism.html

'“Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality — people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position,” he wrote.'

NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/briefing/the-civilian-death-toll-in-gaza.html

'

Israel’s role

The first entity is Israel. After the Oct. 7 attacks — in which Hamas fighters killed more than 1,200 people, while committing sexual assault and torture, sometimes on video — Israeli leaders promised to eliminate Hamas. Israel is seeking to kill Hamas fighters, destroy their weapons stockpiles and collapse their network of tunnels. To do so, Israel has dropped 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza’s densely populated neighborhoods.

These Israeli bombs have turned much of Gaza to rubble. Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon official, has told The Times that he thinks the closest comparisons to so many large bombs falling in such a small area are the Vietnam War or World War II.

U.N. officials and many human rights advocates have criticized Israel for not pursuing tactics that would have killed fewer people. Some U.S. officials are frustrated, too, as my colleague Helene Cooper has reported. Before invading the Iraqi city of Mosul to defeat the Islamic State in 2016, for instance, the U.S. military spent months developing a plan, partly to minimize casualties. Israel, by contrast, started bombing Gaza almost immediately after Oct. 7.

Nonetheless, military experts say that there is probably no way for Israel to topple Hamas without a substantial civilian toll. The question is whether the toll could be lower than it has been.

Hamas’s role

The second responsible party is Hamas. It hides weapons in schools, mosques and hospitals, and its fighters disguise themselves as civilians, all of which are violations of international law.

This approach both helps Hamas to survive against a more powerful enemy — the Israeli military — and contributes to Hamas’s efforts to delegitimize Israel. The group has vowed to repeat the Oct. 7 attacks and ultimately destroy Israel. Hamas’s strategy involves forcing Israel to choose between allowing Hamas to exist and killing Palestinian civilians.

Hamas is simply not prioritizing Palestinian lives.

Egypt’s role

The third responsible party, and the one that has received the least attention, is Egypt. Egypt’s leaders have maintained a militarized border with Gaza, refusing to admit refugees. “We are prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory,” Egypt’s prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, said recently.

Egypt has justified the decision by saying that it does not want to reward Israel’s aggression by encouraging Gazans to flee. And Palestinians themselves have historical reasons to fear that fleeing their land will lead Israel to annex it.'